Why I Need Feminism

"Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties.
It's battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions, for safety in the streets, for child care, for social welfare, for rape crisis centers, women's refugees, reforms in the law.
If someone says 'Oh, I'm not a feminist', I ask, 'Why? What's your problem?'"
- Dale Spender

Across the globe, women live in societies ruled and overrun by the male population. For centuries now, life was built upon the belief that men are superior to the female population, and that’s why it’s so easy for men to judge and fuss about women wanting equality. Even in America, when women have the most rights worldwide, the female mass still fights in the battle for equal rights because men don’t seem to understand the daily struggles women encounter in day-to-day life.

For a long time, I believed feminism was one of the most idiotic ideas created by needy and overly emotional females who felt the need to be superior. This had a lot to do with my circle of friends containing mostly guys, and constantly hearing them bash the feminists we either saw on social media or knew from school. It was so simple to go along with their jokes, that I lost sight of what I, as a woman, not only needed but deserved in life: equality.

Now, I completely understand that under physical circumstances women won’t ever be equal to men, and that’s something society can’t ever really change. But when it comes to issues such as sexual assault, the glass ceiling, or double standards, there are many problems that need to be addressed and fixed. And this isn't even where feminism begins. Feminism happens to stand for equality for everyone, including men and women of other ethnicities, and the LGBTQ community. We all live in a country that is founded on equality and freedom, so why is it so hard for us to fully achieve that?

My belief is that a lot of men just don’t get it, and maybe they never will. When was the last time you heard of a man being raped because his outfit was “asking for it?” Or the last time a man was sent home from school because what he wore was “inappropriate” or “distracting?” How about the last time a man was scolded for trying to feed his infant in public so it would grow into a healthy child? My guess is not recently, if not at all. And due to the simple fact that they haven’t ever had to handle the issue themselves, they see all feminists as annoying radicals who are complaining about unrealistic problems, and only trying to take over our country.

Let me give you an example and try to break it down so it can be put into perspective. In this country, there are fewer women (this includes the entire American female population) running big companies than there are by men named John. Yes, just by the one name. As stated in the New York Times, “Among chief executives of S.&P. 1500 firms, for each woman, there are four men named John, Robert, William, or James." And in case this isn’t enough proof that the glass ceiling is still a problem, let’s look at how even our fellow “feminist” Hillary Clinton has created her own glass ceiling (as you can see below), where the women campaigning for her are making less than the men.

Imagine if men were having the issue of being paid less than women. It would probably be all over the news, blasted in our faces, and eventually congress and the rest of our United States government would find a way to address the problem. All because we live in a world run and fueled by men that are too closed-minded to even try and understand the things women struggle with every single day. And that is just one, brief example of thousands somebody could get into as to why women need feminism.

This is not an article to bash all men because men of other ethnicities happen to struggle just as much as women, and women of other ethnicities struggle even more than the two combined. Feminism is not about putting women over men or just women in general. It’s not about winning, and it’s not just about white women in America. Feminism is about equality for everyone. Whether you're a man, a woman, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or LGBTQ. If women were to sit quiet and let these problems handle themselves, we probably wouldn’t even have the right to vote right now. I need feminism because no man is going to turn around and fix things for me. I need feminism because people are putting a bra strap and shorts above my education. I need feminism because I have to work twice as hard to get half of what a man does. I need feminism because, without it, I’d be nothing more than a housewife who simply let the world and its opportunities just pass her by.